Three Kingdoms

The first month of the second year of Yanping in the Han Dynasty.

Whether you are poor or rich, you have to celebrate the New Year. Emperor Liu Xie of the Han Dynasty was no exception.

On the first day of the first lunar month, the emperor led his ministers to pay homage to Gaozu and Shizu temples. On the eighth day of the first lunar month, people offer sacrifices to heaven and earth to pray for a good harvest. On the ninth day of the first lunar month, worship Yuntai. On the same day, the emperor issued an order, ordering Yang Biao and Lu Bu to stop their troops, and the two families jointly entered the court to govern.

All such political activities were carried out under the ministers headed by Fu Wan. As Yang Biao's strength weakened greatly, the Hongnong Yang family's control over Luoyang was greatly reduced, and it was unable to fully interfere with Liu Xie. And because Lu Bu was almost at the gate of the city, Yang Biao could only accept it in the end. After the mediation by Dong Cheng and others, he said that he could sit down with Lu Bu to discuss some follow-up governance issues and no longer march.

Fu Wan and others celebrated with each other, feeling like a new year, a new dynasty, and a new atmosphere.

Yang Biao was hit hard both physically and mentally. Before the New Year, he heard that he fell ill. Yang Xiu hurried back and took care of him day and night. Yang Xiu, who was originally a high-ranking official like a noble son, gradually realized that life was not easy. He and Yang Biao huddled in Hongnong County, comforting each other and licking their wounds, or accumulating strength and waiting for the opportunity. Got it.

Lu Bu's army, well, it wasn't really a big army. Anyway, if we didn't distinguish between auxiliary soldiers and civilians, they could barely gather together ten thousand people. They marched into Luoyang, met the emperor Liu Xie, and started a new journey.

Emperor Liu Xie ignored Yang Biao. He finally walked from behind the scenes to the front of the stage. It took him four or five years to really take this step!

On the tenth day of the first lunar month, Emperor Liu Xie paraded his troops at the head of Luoyang City. Of course, he was parading Lu Bu's army. Immediately, Liu Xie returned to the palace to accept the congratulations from the officials, and officially sat high on the throne alone. His mood was as complicated as that of a daughter-in-law who had been a mother-in-law for many years, with joy and worry.

On the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, the emperor held his first imperial meeting. The focus of the discussion was mainly on how to calm the chaos in the world and return to the original order as soon as possible.

ZTE, these two words are very important in Liu Xie's heart, including his father Han Ling Emperor. At the beginning, Emperor Ling of the Han Dynasty also managed to hold power for a period of time, and also wanted to pull the out-of-control carriage of the Han Dynasty back to the road, but unfortunately, he failed in the end.

Now, Liu Xie wants to pick up these two words again.

How can we complete the great cause of ZTE?

The first is to unify the government orders. As it is now, various counties and counties are in charge of their own affairs, and the situation where the imperial government cannot issue Henan Yin cannot be considered a ZTE. Therefore, in the face of the situation where the power of the princes in various counties and counties is large and small, and is unevenly distributed. Next, what method can be used to pacify the world as soon as possible?

"Your Majesty! I only need 5,000 cavalry to fly across the country! Put down the rebellion!" Lu Bu said with great dignity, "I will clean up the world for your Majesty and restore the world to the great man!" Lu Bu believed that Fu Wan and others only need to do a good job. They don't need to worry about logistics and fighting. With five thousand cavalry and more than ten thousand auxiliary soldiers and civilians, they are a very powerful attacking corps. Coupled with their own martial arts, they are enough to fight in the north and south.

"Your Majesty, you can take the small counties first, accumulate small victories, and gather the troops to achieve a big victory. Based on the plan of a small minister, you can take Yanzhou and Qingzhou first..." Lu Bu was not just talking big words, he also had some calculations in his heart. The plan is very simple and practical. In the name of His Majesty, he will attack the surrounding counties with relatively small strength, and then collect soldiers while accumulating strength, and then decide the outcome with the big princes...

"General Lu!" Fu Wan frowned and had no choice but to interrupt Lu Bu's spiel. Lu Bu's plan was entirely based on ideal conditions, but the actual situation was obviously much more complicated. Now the two Yuans were dividing the north and the south, and Lu Bu planned to deal with these small counties first. Don't you know that these small counties are basically what the two Yuans stretched out? Tentacle, if it really hurts Er Yuan, if they can't save it, they will join forces and attack directly!

But the problem is that Lu Bu is the one who has just been found by his group, and he can't lose Lu Bu's face in person. It would be unsightly to create a estrangement, so Fu Wan considered it and said: "General Lu's strategy may or may not be good." , but the central government has insufficient reserves and insufficient food and grass, so it cannot afford a large-scale expedition..."

Lu Bu frowned, with three deep lines erected in the middle of his forehead. After looking at Fu, he hesitated, closed his mouth, and stepped back, trying not to speak.

After so many years, Lu Bu has learned more or less. Since Fu Wan said this, he will give Fu Wan some face. If the argument continues, both sides will not look good.

Yuan Shao was the enemy of the imperial court, and so was Yuan Shu. Apart from these two forces, the other forces were generally the ones the imperial court could unite with.

According to Lu Bu's original plan, he only needed to unite with Fei Qian to assemble a large number of cavalry troops, and then attack the Yanzhou and Qingzhou areas first to disrupt the battlefield. When one of the two Yuan parties showed a weakness, they could march straight in, just like As if the sharp blade was pierced into the chest, he directly took the head of the general from among the thousands of troops, and then took the head of one of the two yuan!

At that time, as long as one of the two Yuans falls, the world will be shaken, and other surrounding forces that are ready to move will definitely stop. When the time comes, they will return to the army to deal with the remaining Yuan family, and the world will naturally be easily pacified. As long as the two sources of turmoil, Yuan Shao and Yuan Shu, are eliminated, the great cause of ZTE can be completed within a few years.

However, Fu Wan believed that the most important thing now was not to raise troops immediately, but to adjust the land system and taxes first. Without money and food, it is impossible to fight and pacify the world.

Last year, Heluo was hit by a disaster, and the autumn harvest field tax was greatly reduced. In addition, almost all taxes from local counties and counties were withheld, resulting in the court's money and grain being reduced to an extremely low value. In addition, the Heluo area was affected by the previous deaths of Dong Zhuo and Li Guo. reasons, leading to a large loss of population, so it is necessary to take advantage of the current situation where there is still some spare capacity to resettle the refugees, organize production, and increase taxes to stabilize the people.

Fu Wan suggested that the soldiers and common people in Heluo could first learn from the neighboring countries and start farming in the north. By using farming, on the one hand, they could stabilize the political power, show the court's pursuit of peace, and eliminate its vigilance. On the other hand, it could also Re-opening and cultivating the barren land can not only avoid the difficulty of large-scale land reclamation and re-cultivation by small nobles, but also allow the court to directly control the land and obtain sufficient taxes, money and grain income, which is a good thing... …

Liu Xie heard this. Perhaps the financial embarrassment during his previous stay in Chang'an left a deep impression on him. Therefore, after Fu Wan finished explaining his strategy, Liu Xie thought for a moment and then approved the plan to promote Fu Wan. Instead of conquering various places for the time being, develop your own strength first and reserve money and food.

Of course, Liu Xie did not forget to comfort Lu Bu, saying that as long as Lu Bu trained his troops, he would soon have the opportunity to go into battle to kill the enemy, and so on...

After the general direction of the strategy was decided, it was inevitable to continue to delve into some details. One of the things was related to Fei Qian, the general of the Western Conquest, and that was the five-baht coin and the Western Conquest Tongbao.

Originally, during the Western Han Dynasty, the three coin minting officials of Shanglinyuan, Zhong Guan, Bian Tong Ling, and Jun Shu Ling, were responsible for minting the world's coins. They once took back the casting rights, but later because the benefits of minting coins in various places were too great, so In the end, when the imperial power was unstable, it was almost impossible to control private coinage. Even the royal bloodline and princes from all over the country took the lead in poaching the corners of the Han Dynasty. In the end, the national coinage power came to nothing...

There is a difference in value between copper coins and actual items. For example, the normal market price of a five-baht coin can be exchanged for a noodle cake, but in fact, the value of the metal itself used in a five-baht coin is not worth a noodle cake. , then the difference is obtained by the caster.

This principle is basically understood by anyone who has played with minting coins. Therefore, when Zhengxi’s Tongbao appeared on the market, although everyone felt that this kind of Tongbao was better than the original hemp money and corn money, and even better than the ordinary five-dollar money. Baht coins are three cents better, but this kind of thing has always been a matter of small profits but quick turnover. Although the profit of one coin is very small, if all the coins in the world use Zhengxi Tongbao, then the accumulation will be quite considerable.

And judging from the speed of circulation of Zhengxi Tongbao, ordinary people are still more willing to accept coins with better quality and more exquisite patterns. It is more convenient to keep or spend them.

If it weren't for the fact that inferior coins such as corn money and hemp money have not been rejected by many merchants and people, maybe bad coins will drive out good coins again.

When Fei was lurking and merging north, he used inflation to harvest a wave of wealth, and the noble nobles who had harvested their wealth were busy spending the low-quality coins in their hands. Some even did not hesitate to recover their losses. Melting the original five-baht coins and minting a large number of worse coins again further aggravated the devaluation of the coins. The final result was that the surrounding coin order completely collapsed. Both the nobles and the common people who had suffered a loss refused to accept it anymore. Poor-quality coins, even five-baht coins that were originally of good quality, have been implicated and are basically difficult to use.

Therefore, in the Heluo area, people would rather barter than accept inferior coins. Those inferior coins are just like the banknotes that have lost national credibility in later generations. They are worse than waste paper. This has led to the gradual disappearance of inferior coins. Market, the market in Heluo area was once cut off from the circulation of coins.

Now that the imperial court is re-establishing the tax system, the issue of rebuilding the order of coins has become a focus of debate, whether to use Feiqian's Zhengxi Tongbao or the original five baht coins.

On the one hand, some people say that Luoyang originally had furnaces and craftsmen who could mint money in the city, and all it needed was an edict to abolish the Zhengxi Tongbao and re-cast and circulate the five-baht coin.

On the other hand, some people suggested that since the people are willing to accept new money and are unwilling to accept five baht, let Zhengxi pay tribute to a set of craftsmen and equipment for casting Tongbao. Since no one wants the original bad money, they can simply melt it and cast it again. New Tongbao.

Some people said that even if the coinage from Zhengxi was collected, princes from other regions would also mint money. They could not prohibit it at all. Instead, they offended General Fei Qian of Zhengxi and snubbed the hearts of good ministers.

Then some people said that the coins minted in Zhengxi were not approved by His Majesty. Where did the good ministers come from? Even if there were, I'm afraid there would be some discounts...

Seeing that the building was gradually tilting, Liu Xie quickly stopped discussing the issue and said he would put it on hold until new solutions were found.

Finally, there is the issue of soldiers.

The original military system of the Han Dynasty was inherited from the Qin system. The emperor was the supreme military commander and had two major military agencies to control the entire army. One is the capital security organization composed of Guang Luxun, Wei Wei, and Zhi Jinwu, and the other is the highest military administrative organization composed of Taiwei and generals at all levels. The country's army consists of three parts: the capital army, the army of various prefectures and states, and the border army.

The capital army includes Huben Army, Yulin Army, Southern Army and Northern Army. The Northern Army usually guards the capital, and some or all of them accompany the general on expeditions. The soldiers of the prefecture and state maintained local security in peacetime and were at the disposal of the court in times of war. The emperor's "tiger talisman" is needed to recruit soldiers from the county and country. When the war is tense, they can be temporarily recruited from the county and country.

The border troops garrisoned the border counties and were led by the prefects of each border county and the governor of the state.

But now the capital army is basically gone. The border army, the northwest army, that is, General Fei Qian of Zhengxi, is the only one, and then the soldiers from various counties and counties do their own thing.

Let Fei Qian lead troops to the capital. As long as many people think of this matter, they will think that Dong Zhuo and Li Guo are coming again, so they are absolutely unacceptable. But now, even if these soldiers of Lu Bu are counted as the capital's army, it is not enough. To compete with the soldiers from various counties, but do we need to recruit a large number of soldiers and expand the army...

Where does the money and food come from?

Everyone found themselves embarrassed and had to go back to the original question...

Liu Xie sat on the throne, looking left and right. After more than two hours of the officials arguing with each other and talking to each other, he has gradually lost the original attitude of sitting on the throne. A feeling of excitement and fatigue rose from my heart and spread throughout my body.

"Is this kind of court what my father has experienced before?" After all, Liu Xie was young and his energy could not be compared with that of an adult. He didn't know when he started to get distracted and looked at the top of the hall in a daze, "If my father is still here, , such a situation... no, what should Emperor Guangwu do when faced with such a situation? "

"Your Majesty... Your Majesty!" After finishing the memorial, he found that Liu Xie was in a daze and couldn't help but raise his voice, "I wonder what your Majesty's intention is?"

"Ah?" Liu Xie was stunned for a moment, then subconsciously replied, "Then just follow Aiqing's instructions..."

As soon as the words came out, Liu Xie realized something was wrong.

There is no way, this is a habit that has been developed since the time of Dong Zhuo. Anyway, at that time, he was basically a puppet. Dong Zhuo or Li Guo said whatever he said. Liu Xie himself said this most skillfully at the court meeting. The words were spoken. Now that I was distracted, I subconsciously blurted out the words.

What did Fu Wan just say?

It's over, do you want to say that what you said during the first court meeting does not count?

Liu Xie suppressed his face and turned red, staring anxiously at the small yellow door next to him. Xiao Huangmen was agitated and shouted loudly: "Your Majesty is not feeling well. Today's court meeting will be suspended temporarily! Relevant matters will be discussed tomorrow! Retreat from the court!"

"this!"

"well……"

"Farewell Your Majesty!" All the officials were helpless, but Liu Xie wanted to leave and no one could stop them, so they had to bow together and adjourn the meeting for the time being...

Lu Bu frowned, lowered his head, and watched Liu Xie get off the throne and enter the back hall with the corner of his eye. He then shook his sleeves and left the main hall without saying hello to Fu Wan and others.

In Luoyang in the first month of the year, the sky was still clear, but when Lu Bu stood outside the main hall, he felt that the sky was somewhat hazy...